Kukla's Korner Hockey

Entries with the tag: jonathan cheechoo

ST. LOUIS – St. Louis Blues Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Armstrong announced today the club has signed forward Jonathan Cheechoo to a one-year contract.

Cheechoo, 30, spent last season with the American Hockey League’s (AHL) Worcester Sharks tallying 47 points (18 goals, 29 assists) in 55 games. The 6’1”, 200-pound forward has also appeared in 501 National Hockey League (NHL) games over seven seasons between the San Jose Sharks and Ottawa Senators compiling 305 points (170 goals, 135 assists) along with 324 penalty minutes.

The Moose Factory, Ontario native was originally drafted by San Jose in the second round, 29th overall, of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft.

Cutting through the offensive zone, Jonathan Cheechoo, who once scored 56 goals in a season for the San Jose Sharks, appeared ready to score again. But this was not the N.H.L., and when Cheechoo deftly drew the goalie out only to slide the puck to a teammate, the teammate was not ready for it.

“He just has a lot of poise when he gets the puck,” said Roy Sommer, who coaches Cheechoo with the Worcester Sharks of the American Hockey League.

The A.H.L. is not where Cheechoo, a right wing, was supposed to be. But meeting the high expectations that came with winning the Maurice Richard Trophy as the N.H.L.’s top goal scorer in 2005-6 proved daunting. He led San Jose in goals the next season, but his production sank the next two seasons. Injuries mounted, including a double sports hernia, and his streak of 140 games played ended.

“I lost a little confidence in myself,” Cheechoo, 30, said. “One or two stop going in, you start trying to get a little closer to the net, you’re easier to check and you take less shots. I think I tried to get too fine.”

The 30-year-old native of Moose Factory, Ontario, isn’t trying to make the team as a checker. The Stars will take a look at him on the wing with Mike Ribeiro and Brenden Morrow. Talk about a carrot.

“For a goal scorer, you have to get an opportunity,” Stars coach Marc Crawford told ESPN.com. “We think we’ve got an opportunity here to give him a real good look in the preseason and see if he can find some chemistry between him and Ribeiro and Morrow. They need a shooter on that line and he is a shooter. He finds open spots and Ribeiro finds open people. Morrow goes hard to the net and is a hard, hard guy.

“It is a great opportunity, and who knows how it’s going to turn out. That’ll be determined by Jonathan. I’m hoping that we get a surprise and he’s able to make our club and be a contributing guy for us.”

Frisco, Tex - Dallas Stars General Manager Joe Nieuwendyk announced today that right wing Jonathan Cheechoo has accepted an invitation to attend the Dallas Stars’ training camp for a tryout.

“We’re pleased that Jonathan has accepted our invitation to come to our training camp,” Nieuwendyk said. “He has shown the ability to be an effective scorer in this league. He’s a competitor and we’re going to give him an opportunity.”

Cheechoo, 29, played in 61 games with the Ottawa Senators in 2009-10, registering five goals, nine assists and 20 penalty minutes.

In a story of how quickly the mighty can fall, the Ottawa Senators bought out the final year of Jonathan Cheechoo’s contract on Tuesday.

The move comes as no surprise.

It was inevitable, considering no other NHL team was willing to pick up the $3.5 million U.S. remaining on his deal earlier this week and last March, when the club placed him on waivers before shipping him to Binghamton of the American Hockey League.

“It was a little bit of a shock, but you look at it as a great opportunity go out and prove I can still do what I can do.”

“It’s a no-brainer for them (the Sharks). That’s somebody they targeted and you’re going to have to give up things to get things. To be part of that deal, I’ve got to go to Ottawa and show them they didn’t make a wrong choice.”

-Jonathan Cheechoo on the trade to Ottawa. More from Cheechoo from David Pollak of Working the Corners.

San Jose Sharks Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Wilson announced today that the team has acquired left wing Dany Heatley and a fifth round selection in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft from the Ottawa Senators in exchange for right wing Jonathan Cheechoo, left wing Milan Michalek and San Jose’s second round selection in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft

“We’ve tried different things with Cheech,” said Sharks head coach Todd McLellan. “We’ve tried to play him in that (first-line) situation, we’ve tried to take pressure off of him as a scorer.”

Following his breakout campaign, the native of Moose Factory, Ont., had a respectable 37 goals the following season. Last year, he scored 23.

The way things are going, Cheechoo will be hard pressed to break the 20-goal barrier this season.

“One of the road blocks is perhaps is the fact that he scored 56 goals,” McLellan said. “The microscope is on him night in and night out. Perhaps if he had only scored 35, we’d be somewhat happy with his impact on the game right now. But the fact that he has scored 56 and everyone is aware of it, makes it a little tougher for him.”

Please note that the following is merely just speculation on my part and isn’t based on any reports I’ve read or heard. It’s merely based on a discussion I recently had with a friend of mine, who suggested the possibility of the Sharks trading Jonathan Cheechoo to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Here’s the basis of his opinion:

• Cheechoo isn’t producing the numbers he once did when he was on the Thornton line

• The Sharks obviously aren’t hurting because of his drop in production, and I think he may have missed the last game or more…not sure though

Making him even more sluggish in his fifth NHL season was the double-hernia surgery he underwent last spring. Cheechoo had tears on both sides of his abdominal muscles, where they attach to the groin, and doctors went in and repaired everything at once late in May.

Undergoing the operation three months before training camp had a significant impact on Cheechoo’s training.

“I run a lot during the off-season, and I wasn’t able to run at all this off-season,” he said. “I wasn’t able to do anything real heavy until probably the last part of August.

Two goals in 12 games? This puts Cheechoo on pace to score between 13 and 14 goals in an 82-game season. It isn’t the Cheechoo way.

See net, hit net, pump fist. That is the Cheechoo way. Two years ago, he had 56 goals to lead the NHL. Last season, he topped the team with 37 goals. But so far this season, he has lost his mojo. Sharks Coach Ron Wilson has moved Cheechoo off the top line - and has even occasionally used him on the penalty kill, to help get Cheechoo’s mind off his scoring speed bump and have him simply think about playing hockey.